To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
If you stumbled blindly into Transport for London’s lost property office in West Ham, you might think it was a storeroom for a bizarre museum.
There are shelves and shelves of roller storage crammed with toys, scooters and umbrellas; suitcases of false teeth; dozens of bikes lined up on racks.
A plastic skeleton grips a guard rail, while a stuffed Spider-Man dangles overhead. Prosthetic limbs are stored alongside vintage wedding dresses.
But these are not curios collected by some Victorian eccentric. Every one of the thousands of objects in the building should never have ended up there – and the staff are desperate to give them back.
Two years ago, Europe’s largest lost property office relocated from 200 Baker Street – its home for 86 years – to a site beside West Ham Bus Garage.
The new facility has an unexpected name, which demonstrates the approach taken by the staff there: it’s called NotLost.
TfL wants London’s tube, bus and rail passengers to know the precious item they accidentally left behind when alighting may not be lost after all. It may in fact be catalogued and sitting in this unique library.
Diana Quaye, TfL’s performance manager, told Metro: ‘There’s a lot of honest people in London, and I don’t think a lot of people realise that.’
Commuters who spot an abandoned bag on the seat next to them often won’t swipe it – they might hand it over to a station worker or simply leave it for a member of staff to spot as they sweep the carriage at the end of a journey.
Either way, there’s every chance it will end up in West Ham.
Diana’s favourite example of lost property? ‘A bag came in and my staff member opened it, and it had cooked little frogs in the bag.’
Latest London news
- Will this London borough get a ‘tourist tax’ in the future?
- Londoners are flocking to this ‘green and leafy’ suburb over its trendy neighbour
- Wife of man crushed to death by toilet in London wants £200,000 compensation
To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro’s London news hub.
One extraordinary room contains shelves packed with manila envelopes, each of which contains a misplaced mobile phone.
Among the classic beige envelopes are a few that are bright red. These are the mobile phones that were left behind in one of TfL’s black cabs.
Like almost every other object in the place, they must be claimed within three months of the date of loss. After that, anything that remains is donated to charity, recycled, disposed of, or sold.
What to do if you’ve lost something on TfL services
If you’ve left something you need back on a TfL service, it’s best to try and get it back as quickly as possible.
It can be claimed for a maximum of three months after you lost it – unless it is cash, which can be claimed for up to a year after loss.
Individual credit and debit cards are securely destroyed when found, and it’s recommended people contact their bank immediately to arrange a replacement even if they were inside a wallet or purse.
TfL also does not keep lighters, e-cigarettes, food, soiled clothing, highly flammable substances, or anything else that might be hazardous to store.
If your item was lost on a bus in the last three days, it’s best to contact the operator as it may still be at the garage.
Otherwise, first check at the place it was lost before contacting NotLost – the process is further down in this article.
The collection office is only open for pre-booked appointments. Fees will apply unless your items is picked up direct from the station or garage.
The numbers involved are eye-popping: almost 300,000 items were handed in last year, including more than 44,000 bags. Most were left behind on buses.
But most troubling of all for the staff at NotLost is the retrieval rate, which is just 22%.
TfL’s advice is for people to first inquire about their lost property at the place where they know they last had it.
If they have no luck there, they can head over to the NotLost website and fill out a form with all the details that might help staff retrieve it from their collection.
Whether it’s an umbrella, wallet, or bag stuffed with tiny cooked frogs – they may just get back in touch with some good news.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.